Bucket teeth of buckets for excavators, diggers and other related excavation, digging, construction and mining equipment, are subjected to severe wear and corrosion conditions. Wear is caused by contact with abrasive materials including rocks, gravel and dry sand. The wear problem is further aggravated because such materials can be much harder than even hardened steel. The wear of bucket teeth is not substantially reduced by simply hardening the contact surface. Therefore, an approach other than heat treatment is desired to reduce the wear rate to prolong the life of bucket teeth substantially.
Also, due to the functional nature of such equipment, bucket teeth are frequently in intimate contact with wet materials, such as wet sand slurry, gravel and rocks. This contact can cause bucket teeth to corrode, thereby producing a synergistic effect on bucket tooth wear.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide longer wearing surfaces on bucket teeth to extend the service life and to reduce the associated long-term maintenance cost.